1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to data processing systems and, in particular, to a data processing system and method including an input/output touch pad having dynamically alterable location indicators. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a data processing system and method including an input/output touch pad having a dynamically alterable output, such that location indicators used to assist a user to quickly locate input regions are dynamically alterable synchronously with the changing input regions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal computer systems are well known in the art. They have attained widespread use for providing computer power to many segments of today""s modern society. Personal computers (PCs) may be defined as a desktop, floor standing, or portable microcomputer that includes a system unit having a central processing unit (CPU) and associated volatile and non-volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM) and basic input/output system read only memory (BIOS ROM), a system monitor, a keyboard, one or more flexible diskette drives, a CD-ROM drive, a fixed disk storage drive (also known as a xe2x80x9chard drivexe2x80x9d), a pointing device such as a mouse, and an optional network interface adapter. One of the distinguishing characteristics of these systems is the use of a motherboard or system planar to electrically connect components together. Examples of such personal computer systems are IBM""s PC 300 series, Aptiva series, and Intellistation series.
Interacting with these computer systems can be accomplished utilizing an input touch pad. This interacting, however, can be difficult because these touch pads do not provide an output. Specifically, they do not provide an indication of what part of the input surface of the touch pad maps to a particular area of the display screen.
One known method used to overcome this difficulty is to provide a painted grid on the surface of the input touch pad. In this manner, the user may calibrate the input surface of the touch pad to the display screen utilizing calibration software. This method is time consuming. In addition, when a user desires to zoom in to a portion of the display screen, this method is ineffective because the grid is no longer calibrated to the current output of the display screen.
Therefore a need exists for a data processing system and method including an input/output touch pad capable of providing a dynamically alterable output, such that location indicators are provided to assist a user to quickly locate input regions where the location indicators are dynamically alterable synchronously with the changing input regions.
A data processing system and method including a touch pad capable of receiving inputs and providing outputs utilizing a surface of the pad. The surface is first enabled to receive inputs utilizing a plurality of input regions specified within the surface of the I/O touch pad. An output is provided utilizing the surface of the touch pad by outputting a first plurality of location indicators for assisting a user to quickly locate at least one of the plurality of input regions. The surface is then enabled to receive inputs utilizing a different plurality of input regions specified within the surface of the I/O touch pad. The output is then dynamically altered in response to the specification of the different plurality of input regions by outputting a second plurality of location indicators for assisting the user to quickly locate at least one of the different plurality of input regions. The output is altered synchronously with the enablement of the surface to receive inputs utilizing the different plurality of input regions.
The above as well as additional objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.